🎻♫♪ – Motets by Guillaume Dufay

List Item: Listen to half of the 1001 Classical Works You Must Hear Before You Die
Progress: 10/501Title:MotetsComposer: Guillaume DufayNationality: Franco-Flemish
Year: 1420-1447

Okay so two weeks ago I was full of love for Spotify because it houses so many recordings that I need for this list. However, on two of my playthroughs of the Huelgas Ensemble’s album of Dufay’s Motets there could have been more suitable adverts.

To describe what I mean I think I need to describe what a motet is. Essentially they are short vocal pieces with multiple voices singing independent parts (also known as polyphony). Since these ones are all sung in Latin you can’t help but think that they are singing something either fully religious or with a religious bent.

So imagine me listening to these at work and feeling somewhat relaxed and then suddenly an advert for this comes on. Talk about being yanked out of a comfortable choral blanket and back into the realities of current music.

As much as I know that Guillaume Dufay is an influential figure in Renaissance music, I am just counting down the entries until we reach music with some instruments. I never thought I would say this, but I want a piece of music with a harpsichord. I know I have long ways to go. I know this. It’s just that it feels like all I have been listening to for this so far are vocal harmonies which, although nice, sound very similar to my ear in training.